Disney Plus’ Percy Jackson and the Olympians has found its Thalia Grace and she has got a mean resume in the world of fantasy media, including another Disney show. Tamara Smart will take over the role of the feisty daughter of Zeus, who’s joining Camp Half-Blood in season 2.
The casting choice is particularly special given Smart’s connection to the actor who played the king of gods in the first season of the show, Lance Reddick. The two played father and daughter before in the 2022 Netflix Resident Evil series, where the young actress gave life to a younger version of Jade Wesker, the daughter of Reddick’s character, Albert Wesker. They would have been reunited in Percy Jackson, but Reddick suddenly died in 2023 from coronary artery disease.
The two had talked about working together again in the future, Smart said in a statement released by Disney. “I feel his presence all around me and strive to make him proud on this exciting journey,” she added.
Where you may have seen Tamara Smart before
At 19 years old, Smart’s career is already pretty impressive. She broke onto the scene at just 10 years old, playing one of the young pupils at the magical Cackle’s Academy, Enid Nightshade, in the CBBC adaptation of The Worst Witch, sharing the screen with Clare Higgins and another would-be star, The Last of Us‘ Bella Ramsey.
Smart went from main role to main role after landing Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? in 2019 where she played one of the popular girls, Louise Fulci, and Disney’s Artemis Fowl film playing the lead’s best friend, Juliet Butler. She completed this fantasy/horror trifecta by leading another Netflix production, A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting, where she starred alongside Harry Potter‘s Tom Felton and Pose‘s Indya Moore.
I’ve also auditioned for some normal things, but I feel like fantasy’s just my thing. Maybe I am magical?”
Fantasy, it seems, is the young artist’s “thing,” she told Pop Sugar in 2020. Percy Jackson will now be joining her ever-growing, glittering catalog. She has hung out with witches, zombies, fairies, and monsters. Now it’s time for demi-gods.
Tamara Smart’s ethnicity explained
Percy Jackson‘s new prodigé, Tamara Smart is Black British. Her mother, Fiona, is white, and her dad Cornelius, is Black. She was born and raised in North London and considers herself a proud Londoner, experiencing the English capital with her parents and older sister Justine.
Smart started as a dancer at DanceCrazy Studios, before enrolling in Barnet’s Razzamataz theater school. That background helped her land the stunts in Artemis Fowl and will certainly prove useful again with how physical some of the Percy episodes can be.
Interestingly enough, the young actress will reportedly get to keep her English accent in the Rick Riordan adaptation. Speaking about the casting process for Thalia, the author said Smart’s electricity reflected the character’s signature “punk” personality. “Tamara puts the ‘grace’ in Thalia Grace,” he gushed. We can’t wait to see her in action when Percy Jackson and the Olympians returns to our screens in 2025.